Welcome

Welcome to the POZ/AIDSmeds Community Forums, a round-the-clock discussion area for people with HIV/AIDS, their friends/family/caregivers, and
others concerned about HIV/AIDS. Click on the links below to browse our various forums; scroll down for a glance at the most recent posts; or join in the
conversation yourself by registering on the left side of this page.

Privacy Warning: Please realize that these forums are open to all, and are fully searchable via Google and other search engines. If you are HIV positive
and disclose this in our forums, then it is almost the same thing as telling the whole world (or at least the World Wide Web). If this concerns you, then do not use a
username or avatar that are self-identifying in any way. We do not allow the deletion of anything you post in these forums, so think before you post.

The information shared in these forums, by moderators and members, is designed to complement, not replace, the relationship between an individual and his/her own
physician.

All members of these forums are, by default, not considered to be licensed medical providers. If otherwise, users must clearly define themselves as such.

Forums members must behave at all times with respect and honesty. Posting guidelines, including time-out and banning policies, have been established by the moderators
of these forums. Click here for “Am I Infected?” posting guidelines. Click here for posting guidelines pertaining to all other POZ/AIDSmeds community forums.

We ask all forums members to provide references for health/medical/scientific information they provide, when it is not a personal experience being discussed. Please
provide hyperlinks with full URLs or full citations of published works not available via the Internet. Additionally, all forums members must post information which are
true and correct to their knowledge.

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. ó An HIV-positive Fort Bragg soldier has been charged with knowingly spreading the virus to a teenage boy, WRAL.com reports.

Private First Class Johnny Lamar Dalton was charged last week by civilian authorities in Cumberland County with assault with a deadly weapon, misdemeanor assault and committing a crime against nature. He is being held under a $50,000 bond and faces the same charges from the military.

Dalton was arrested after the Fort Bragg military police and the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office conducted a five-month-long investigation, where they found that the 25-year-old was engaged in a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old boy he found in a gay online chatroom and then met in person, the boy's mother told WRAL.com.

Last November, Dalton signed a written order agreeing to not have unprotected sex and to notify a partner before he did, a spokesperson for the 82nd Airborn Division told WRAL.com.

His encounters with the boy continued despite the order and despite his having a wife and children. In February, doctors conducting routine blood tests reportedly found that the otherwise healthy teen was HIV positive.

The boy, now 18, and his mother went to Fort Bragg military police and then to the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office.

"My son received it [HIV] unwillingly," the teen's mother told WRAL.com. "If you willingly and knowingly ... and you purposefully do something, you should suffer the consequences."

Both the boy's mother and military investigators told WRAL.com they are worried that Dalton might have infected other people who have not come forward. The mother has said she thinks that the Army should have better control over soldiers known to be infected with HIV or AIDS.

Dalton is a member of the 22nd Aviation Support Battalion and is not allowed to deploy because of the virus.

"My son received it [HIV] unwillingly," the teen's mother told WRAL.com. "If you willingly and knowingly ... and you purposefully do something, you should suffer the consequences."

The mother has said she thinks that the Army should have better control over soldiers known to be infected with HIV or AIDS.

So, its totally up to us to save the world? HOW and more importantly WHY should the Army have control over pos soldiers? I understand the son is quite young, and that the soldier signed a consent form, but it takes two to tango. I agree to some extent, but its up to everyone to protect THEMSELVES and have safe sex. I was diagnosed in 93, my husband died in 96, and I finally told his best friend the entire story in 2002. You know what his first reply was? "You should've told me as soon as you found out cause your late husband dated my wife back in the day before she and I got together. We could be infected!" Um, ok FUCKTARD (LOVE that name now....), go get YOURSELF tested! I didn't even know of the "common history" until much later. Needless to say, he and I haven't spoken in five years.

This post just makes me pissed at how stupid the general public is! Its up to everyone to look out for themselves! Narrow-minded idiots.

Well what if the kid was sleeping with several different guys and it just so happened he decided (based on some sort of personal beef and/or a whim) to blame it on Private First Class Johnny Lamar Dalton? Maury Povich needs to host the HIV equivalents of "I Ain't Yo Baby Daddy!"

THAT could definitely be the case, too, I agree on that one! It further supports the fact that we have to look out for ourselves! I'd love to smack that mom, and her son, upside the head....hell, the soldier, too. The two guys should have known better, and NEITHER one took a precaution somewhere along the line....but yes, who's to say WHERE the kid got the virus from?

As an aside, I'm confused...you can serve in the Army if you're positive? Is see "not deploying", but I didn't know you could be involved at all with a poz diagnosis.

You cannot enter military service if you are HIV positive. However, if you become HIV positive during military service, you can continue to serve. You cannot deploy or serve in a billet where you are expected to deploy. You cannot be stationed out of the continental US and must be within 300 miles of a major military healthcare center. If you become disabled to the point where you can no longer perform your duties, they convene a medical board and administratively discharge you with disability benefits.

Privacy is protected to the extreme, with one's CO usually being the only person, other than medical personnel, who know your status.

Health care is provided, usually at one of several large military medical centers. Upon diagnosis, a positive individual goes to one of these centers for a two weeks of counseling, training, testing, and evaluation, then is sent back to his/her command to resume their duties. Periodic doctor visits are scheduled at these sites as well.

Keep in mind that in the US military, HIV testing is mandatory. There is no informed consent (or refusal) with regards to testing. Everyone is tested yearly.

This post just makes me pissed at how stupid the general public is! Its up to everyone to look out for themselves! Narrow-minded idiots.

While I wholeheartedly agree that everyone needs to take responsibility for their own well being, I do think that in this case (if the facts are correct -- and they may NOT be), the poz soldier who had unprotected sex, without disclosing, is not only a first class asshole -- he SHOULD suffer some consequences. The reason everyone should take responsibility for their own health is because many people don't know their status -- it should not give license for someone to knowingly, yet secretly, put someone else at risk.

What the hell is this guy doing bedding minors? Yes it is true that we all should be responsible for our own sexual health...but why should anyone who knows their status not face consequences for knowingly spreading a potentially lethal disease?What if this child were yours, or your sister or brother? It is excusing this type of behavior that earns us HIV positive people little sympathy at times from the world. Are we just bitter people who stopped caring when we became part of the HIV statistiics? I just don't get it. I wish protecting others were more important than getting off, those who don't know their status included.

Agreed, but we all know teens to stupid shit on their own. We don't need people putting them further at risk. I commend those parents who talk to their kids about the dangers of unprotected sex, but we know that most parents are not this frank, at least in my experience.

Well, if the consenting age is 16, and this kid was 17, it is his responsibility to put on a condom. I was in two sexual relationships where the guys refused to wear condoms, even though they knew I am poz. Not my responsibility to make them do it. Again, put the blame where it lies. Even if I was neg and was out screwing around, I would certainly use protection. There are a LOT of things to catch besides HIV. The kid opened himself up for risk.

Logged

I've never killed anyone, but I frequently get satisfaction reading the obituary notices.-Clarence Darrow

I guess it is a personal choice to spread it Betty, but our behaviors do have consequences, and in backwards states, you informing people of your status will not be enough to protect you, should some wacko decide that you never informed them. Yes, everyone should be wearing protection, but we the know the reality. All I am really trying to address here is knowingly transmitting this disease. I just can't accept that it is ever excusable. If this guy really did do this... it is disturbing that people have the oh well, serves the kid right attitude.

That is why I say, if they can prove that he has the same strain as the soldier, which could be tricky. I don't think they started the relationship while the kid was 15, or the soldier would be in much worse trouble. Could the kid have gotten it from someone else, sure. But, the soldier had been warned to stop the unprotected sex.

I was under the impression it is pretty near impossible to get a definite on who infected who by strain... Is it as simple as a DNA test? Sounds like a terrible trial to be a juror... And to get a fair trial... Bah!

No Eric it isn't that hard, if the boy has a different strain than does the soldier, the soldier is going to walk. I think if I was him (soldier) I would wave a jury trial and let the judge decide the case. He won't have a chance in a military court.

I don't understand why some are, seemingly, taking the stance that the entire "fault" lies with the kid? Yes, he should have insisted on safe sex -- yes, he has some responsibility, however, it would be wrong headed to absolve the soldier from blame. He KNEW he was positive and (if the facts reported are true) he still chose to have raw sex. There has to be some responsibility on his part. Sometimes I read so many posts here that seem to indicate that it all the negs responsibility to remain that way. I agree that a negative person should do all they can to protect themselves, but this does not give a positive person license to fuck raw (certainly, not without proper disclosure). I am afraid that we are all so concerned that the onus doesn't get placed ALL on the poz folks, that we are going to the other extreme and saying that none of it is.